1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunication terminal equipment to be used in telecommunication which provides a service for notifying a receiver of a call of a caller's telephone number, and to a response method by an electronic mail.
2. Description of the Related Art
The operation of a conventional telecommunication terminal equipment will be described with reference to FIG. 6.
The conventional telecommunication terminal equipment has an answer phone function as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-219742 and a telephone directory function as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.2000-278399.
If there is an incoming voice call to the conventional telecommunication terminal equipment (601), it is examined whether or not a caller's telephone number is notified. If the caller's telephone number is notified (‘yes’ in 601), a telephone directory is searched with the caller's telephone number used as a search key (603).
If the caller's telephone number is registered with the telephone directory (‘yes’ in 604), the name and telephone number of the caller registered with the telephone directory are displayed on a screen (605).
If an answer phone setting or an absence setting is made (‘yes’ in 606), a response is automatically made to the incoming call (607). In addition, in a conversation established state (608), an answer phone response message such as “I cannot answer the phone right now. Please leave a message after a peep tone.” or an absence response message such as “I cannot answer the phone right now. Please call me back later.” is replayed (609). If the answer phone setting is made, the caller's voice is recorded (610).
After the conversation, the telephone is automatically disconnected (611) and telephone disconnection date/time is acquired from a calendar/clock section (612). The telephone number and name of the caller as well as the call incoming date/time are displayed on the screen and registered as incoming history (613).
As can be seen, the conventional telecommunication terminal equipment realizes the display and storage of the incoming history using the answer phone function and the telephone directory function.
As regards the answer phone function of the conventional telecommunication terminal equipment, a method of changing the content of an answer phone message according to a situation is disclose in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-17802.
The conventional telecommunication terminal equipment has an electronic mail function to allow transmitting and receiving character information as well as a voice conversation function. The display of the incoming history of the equipment is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-295366.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-88526 discloses the telecommunication terminal connecting to a telephone line as follows. A telecommunication terminal connecting to a telephone line is provided with a service for notifying a caller's telephone number. If a voice response cannot be instantly made to an incoming call, then an electronic mail address corresponding to the caller's telephone number previously registered is retrieved, a call is automatically made to the telephone number of a network access point, connection is established with the Internet service and a document is transmitted to the retrieved electronic mail address on the Internet service.
However, according to the conventional telecommunication terminal equipment, schedule data of a called person is not transmitted as a part of the content of the transmitted voice message or that of the document information. Due to this, it is unclear when to again call the called person. The conventional telecommunication terminal equipment has, therefore, a first disadvantage in that it is impossible to ensure that the caller can have conversation with the called person.
In addition, the conventional telecommunication terminal equipment has a third disadvantage in that no measures are taken if schedule data is changed.